💡 SPOTLIGHT

Inside the NATO-Russia battle for the Black Sea — where Turkey is the wildcard

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, NATO has drastically upgraded its focus on the Black Sea. For German daily Die Welt, Carolina Drüten reflects on a visit to the Romanian air base that NATO uses as a base to monitor its southeastern flank, and the open questions even among allies.

The F-16 fighter jets approach the military aircraft from both sides, and intercept it. The missiles hanging under the wings of the jets can be seen from the small round windows of the encircled plane. The Turkish flag is emblazoned on one tail unit, the Romanian flag on the other.

This is the view any Russian military aircraft approaching NATO airspace would have.

For the moment an unidentified aircraft passes a certain point without a transponder signal , the operations center triggers an alarm. Within 15 minutes, jets from the defense alliance are on their way to identify the object. Sometimes they encounter commercial aircraft with a technical problem — sometimes Russian military aircraft.

The scene described at the beginning was an exercise. The intercepted aircraft — a C-27J Spartan — belongs to the Romanian Air Force, with journalists on board en route from the capital Bucharest to the small town of Borcea. This is where the Baza Aeriana 86 base is located, from which NATO monitors the airspace on its southeastern flank. It's also now a F-16 training center, where Ukrainian pilots will soon also be trained.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, NATO has reinforced its readiness in its southern and eastern extremes. Romania and Bulgaria not only have to deal with Moscow's air force, but also with its naval forces as countries bordering the Black Sea. The balance of power is shifting in the strategically important inland sea — but in a different way than Vladimir Putin had anticipated.

Since the end of last year, Turkish fighter pilots have been supporting Enhanced Air Policing South, a mission that was introduced after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 to maintain the integrity of NATO airspace. One of the F-16 pilots involved in the exercise is from Turkey.

On his right arm, he wears a badge with the likeness of Atatürk, founder of the modern Turkish state. His name is not to be published, but the star and laurel wreath on his shoulder indicate his rank: Major. He has been stationed in Romania for ten days. During this time, "we had two real situations that we call 'scrambles'," he says, meaning alarm launches.

A French Rafale jet stands next to two F-16s. A tall French pilot, who introduces himself with his nickname Max, explains that the nature of a mission depends on the location.

"If it's international territory, anyone has the right to fly there, be it an aircraft from Russia or another nationality," he says. "We just carry out professional checks to ensure that our countries' borders are secure." The planes would then be escorted. "In the event of an intrusion into the airspace, we report by radio, wait for orders," Max continues, "and defend the border".

Interactions with Russian aircraft usually take place in international airspace. It is less common for Kremlin planes to enter NATO territory. In December, German and Romanian jets were alerted because a Russian drone had violated Romanian airspace and crashed near the municipality of Grindu. But NATO did not consider this to be a deliberate attack. Debris keeps landing on Romanian soil. The country has the longest border with Ukraine of all NATO members. [...]

— Read the full article by Carolina Drüten for Die Welt, translated into English by Worldcrunch.

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• U.S. unveils draft UN resolution calling for “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza: Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has submitted a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire linked to the release of hostages” in Gaza, after the country vetoed previous UN Security Council votes on the nearly six-month war. The top U.S. diplomat will meet foreign ministers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan while in Cairo on Thursday. Stay up to date with Worldcrunch’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war here.

• Kyiv hit by largest missile attack in weeks, EU to discuss using Russian assets revenues to arm Ukraine: Russia has launched a wave of some 30 cruise and ballistic missiles at Kyiv before dawn on Thursday in the first large attack on Ukraine’s capital in 44 days. At least 13 people were wounded, according to local officials. Meanwhile, European Union leaders are gathering in Brussels for a two-day summit that will consider a plan to use billions of euros in profits from frozen Russian financial assets to buy arms for Ukraine, in a bid to increase support to Kyiv as the U.S. has cut military aid.

• Luís Montenegro appointed Portugal’s prime minister: The Democratic Alliance’s Luís Montenegro is set to become Portugal’s first center-right prime minister in more than eight years, succeeding the Socialist Party's António Costa. The 51-year-old lawyer and veteran parliamentarian said he intends to form a minority government, after he ruled out forming a coalition with the rising anti-immigration party Chega.

• Deadly suicide bomb reported in southern Afghanistan: A rare suicide bombing at a bank in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, known to be the Taliban’s seat of power, has officially killed at least three and injured more than a dozen early Thursday. A doctor at the regional hospital told the BBC at least 21 people died. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

• Vietnam’s vice president becomes interim president after Thuong’s resignation: Vietnam's legislature appointed Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan as acting head of state after President Vo Van Thuong was forced to resign a year into the position, amid an intensified corruption crackdown by the ruling Communist Party. This is the second time that Xuan is stepping in as president, a largely ceremonial role, in just over a year.

• Doctors’ national strike in Kenya escalates: Kenyan doctors have stopped providing emergency services at public hospitals on Thursday, in an escalation of a national strike over poor pay and working conditions that has entered its second week. The Secretary General of Kenya’s Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union said doctors stopped providing bare minimum services because the government had shown no efforts to resolve the labor dispute.

• “Punk beetle” discovered in Australia initially mistaken as bird poo: A new species of longhorn beetle nicknamed “punk beetle” for its shaggy white locks has been discovered in Australia’s Lamington National Park by University of Queensland researcher James Tweed, who spotted the spiky specimen by chance while camping but initially mistook it for bird excrement. “I saw this white thing on a leaf and walked past thinking it was nothing, maybe some bird droppings, but something in my brain told me to turn around,” Tweed said.

🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

Dublin-based daily The Irish Independent dedicates its front page to Education Minister Simon Harris, who is emerging as an early frontrunner to become the country’s next prime minister following Leo Varadkar’s surprise resignation on Wednesday. The Fine Gael party has set a tight timeline for the replacement process, while the opposition is calling for an early election in response to Varadkar’s departure.

📰 STORY OF THE DAY

How Israel’s military is using Palestinians as human shields in Gaza

Released detainees detail how Israel’s military used them as human shields in its war against Hamas in Gaza. Soldiers would put civilian Palestinians in front of military targets, endangering their lives, according to accounts from recently-released detainees, reports Mohamed Abu Shahma in Beirut-based independent digital media Daraj.

🇮🇱🇵🇸 Omar Ashour, a 34-year-old Palestinian, describes what Israel’s military did to him after his arrest in northern Gaza: It is just one example that Daraj has found of how the IDF is using detainees as human shields in its months-long war against Hamas. “The Israeli military detained me, and took me to a place where soldiers were gathering. They put a camera on my head, tied explosives to my body, and asked me to enter one of the apartments and quickly return to the place they had gathered.” Ashour was forced to respond to all the demands of Israeli soldiers out of fear for his life. 

🚨 Ashour was released after two weeks of detention. He was left in front of the gate of the Kerem Shalom crossing, southeast of the city of Rafah. He wore light clothing. He walked about two kilometers barefoot. Ashour is one of dozens of detainees used by Israel's military as human shields during its ongoing war on Gaza. Soldiers put civilian Palestinians in front of military targets, endangering their lives, according to multiple accounts from recently-released detainees.

⚖️ International law and the 1949 Geneva Conventions prohibit the use of civilians as human shields. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the Rome Statute also considered the use of human shields a war crime. In Israel, the B'Tselem rights group said that the Israeli army has over the years, as part of its official policy, used Palestinians as human shields and ordered them to carry out military actions that risked their lives.

➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com

📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO

➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

3,084

The Czech Republic is facing a significant increase in whooping cough cases, reaching a record number not seen since 1963. There are currently 3,084 reported cases, with the highest rate among 15- to 19-year-olds. Factors contributing to the surge include a resurgence in respiratory diseases as COVID-19 measures ease and incomplete immunization among children. Unvaccinated children and those whose mothers weren't vaccinated are at risk of severe complications such as seizures, pneumonia and brain disease.

📣 VERBATIM

“It was like using the Force on the cursor.”

— Noland Arbaugh, 29, the first human patient to be implanted with Elon Musk's Neuralink brain-computer interface technology, described the experience as intuitive, akin to using “the Force,” i.e. the fictional energy field from the Star Wars universe that allows for telekinetic prowesses. In a video posted on the X social media platform, Arbaugh, who is quadriplegic, appeared to play online chess solely using his mind thanks to the technology.

📸 PHOTO DU JOUR

Ukrainian police and rescue workers evacuate residents from a Kyiv neighborhood after Russia launched a wave of some 30 cruise and ballistic missiles at the Ukrainian capital. The overnight attack, which wounded at least 13 people, constitutes the largest attack of its kind in weeks. — Photo: Aleksandr Gusev/SOPA Images/ZUMA

👉  MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH  

• Elon Musk And The Tech Right: Trump's Indispensable Allies For November — FRANCE INTER

• Israel's Other Epic Crime In Gaza: Cultural Genocide — DARAJ

• Michelin Guide, Vintage! The Ultimate Gastronomy Find For Foodie Collectors— LES ECHOS

✅  SIGN UP

Check out and subscribe to Worldcrunch’s other newsletters: 👉Sign up here

✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet and Cory Agathe

...